PS Vita release week rundown

This week we’re seeing so much news on the PlayStation Vita that you’d swear it hadn’t already been on the market for months in Japan. What we’ve got though is a launch both in the USA and in the UK with the system showing up in Target stores as early as yesterday and pre-release bundles appearing at places like Gamestop from the start of this week. We’ve got the device here in the office and will be giving it an extensive review both in operating system and hardware along with the games that are available here at launch, but for now – columns galore!

If you’re thinking about how Sony is positioning the Vita in its world of hardware, you’ve got to listen to Don Reisinger and Chris Davies. For Reisinger, start with the column by the name of The PS Vita will be Sony’s Last Portable. Though it’s seen by Reisinger as a winner and a device that “puts Nintendo’s 3DS to shame”, he’s also of the opinion that it could put the entire mobile-gaming devision of Sony out of production. While it’s possible that Sony may move away from producing its own gaming-only devices – there’s also the idea that the software will survive the fall.

Perhaps the most striking of the column series is this one from Chris Davies in which he describes the Vita OS as the hero here, quoting Yoshio Matsumoto in his affirmation that the Vita OS is the “thin edge of the wedge” on gaming hardware. Sony’s Four-Screen Strategy Needs Vita OS says Davies, and we’re inclined to agree with him. By the way – stay tuned to SlashGear for a full review of Vita OS by the end of the day!

Next there’s two hands-on posts, the first being your humble narrator’s look at the Sony PS Vita 3G complete with AT&T 3G. Then there’s Chris Davies Sony PS Vita is here article which shows off the vodafone UK version of the device.